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Monday Sector Leaders: Technology & Communications, Materials

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The best performing sector as of midday Monday is the Technology & Communications sector, up 2.0%. Within that group, NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) are two large stocks leading the way, showing a gain of 7.0% and 6.9%, respectively. Among technology ETFs, one ETF following the sector is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSE:XLK), which is up 2.1% on the day, and up 3.34% year-to-date. NVIDIA Corp, meanwhile, is up 11.10% year-to-date, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc is up 6.79% year-to-date. Combined, NVDA and AMD make up approximately 6.0% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

The next best performing sector is the Materials sector, higher by 1.2%. Among large Materials stocks, Ball Corp (NYSE:BALL) and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold (NYSE:FCX) are the most notable, showing a gain of 3.6% and 2.7%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Materials stocks is the Materials Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLB), which is up 1.4% in midday trading, and up 5.02% on a year-to-date basis. Ball Corp, meanwhile, is up 8.22% year-to-date, and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold is up 14.49% year-to-date. Combined, BALL and FCX make up approximately 8.8% of the underlying holdings of XLB.

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Comparing these stocks and ETFs on a trailing twelve month basis, below is a relative stock price performance chart, with each of the symbols shown in a different color as labeled in the legend at the bottom:

Here's a snapshot of how the S&P 500 components within the various sectors are faring in afternoon trading on Monday. As you can see, seven sectors are up on the day, while one sector is down.